Michael leans over to see the picture that I’m pointing to. It’s blurry but clear enough that I have no questions about at least two of the faces I see circled in red ink. Neither, apparently, does Georgie.

“That’s a photograph of the inner circle of the Inquisitors,” he says. “The Guard have determined it’s legitimate. We haven’t had intelligence on the activity of the Inquisitors this specific in decades, and we’re confident this information can help lead us to Hypatia.”

None of this makes any sense.

“How do you know that they’re the ones who have her?”

“We have compelling evidence linking them to all of the recent abductions.”

Time seems to slow, the beating of my heart echoing in my skull. I glance at Georgie, and her eyes look like they might pop out of her face.

“We have to go,” I say.

“But you just got here—”

I dash out of the room with Georgie on my heels.

“Wasn’t that your—” she starts.

“Shh. Not here. Let’s get back to our apartment.”

The moment we’re there, the door closed behind us, Georgie bursts out, “Ada, your cousin and your mom were in that photo.”

“Yes.”

We’re horrified for different reasons. She by who is in the picture. Me by who has the picture.

“What does this mean?”

“I don’t know!”

What I really don’t know is why Georgie hasn’t already put it together. Why she hasn’t accused me of spying. The evidence is clear as glace.

“If you had to guess?” She is looking up at me without an ounce of accusation. For some reason, she trusts me. I press my lips together, the lies I’m about to tell already sour on my tongue.

The Families had coached me on various responses to getting caught. I have a reasonably plausible justification that I could tell her right now, but Georgie is the last person I want to lie to.

So I find myself telling her the truth instead.

“My family is part of a secret society that knows about the Makers. But they’re not the Inquisitors.”

This is not a lie. The Inquisitors that the Makers fear so much, they really don’t exist anymore. The order that is now the Families started out as Inquisitors, sure. But that was literally centuries ago.